Labour leader Ed Miliband has been urged to recruit Sir Alex Ferguson to coach the party to election victory in 2015.

The former Manchester United manager advised Tony Blair in the run-up to his 1997 landslide and MP John Mann has written to Mr Miliband requesting an action replay.

Mr Mann wrote: “In addition to the undoubted morale boost, Sir Alex would shape and inspire a new generation of Labour Party activists, and provide unrivalled experience of management and long-term planning.”

A Labour source yesterday said Mr Miliband would be happy to listen to the footie legend’s views, adding: “We welcome all advice.”

The call comes after the Mirror revealed how life-long Labour supporter Sir Alex, 73, had turned down the chance to become a Labour peer last year.

He was never formally offered a peerage but friends reckon he was sounded out about the possibility – and responded that he did not want it.

At the time one said: “He’s a Labour supporter and will always try to help the party.

"But he made it clear he’s not interested. It’s not for him.”

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Sir Alex’s secret role in Labour’s 1997 victor was revealed by ex-Downing Street spin doctor Alastair Campbell in his diaries.

In advice that would not have been out of place in the Old Trafford dressing room Sir Alex told Tony Blair to play his own game, sit back and let the Tories make mistakes.

As the Labour leader prepared for the election, Fergie told him to “start thinking about mental and physical fitness during the campaign”.

The Scot advised Blair to travel with his own masseur and build rest periods into his schedule.

“If you have physical fitness, you get mental fitness,” Mr Campbell remembered him saying.

Sir Alex even predicted a three figure landslide majority according to his diaries.

He told Campbell that Labour “were doing great and he reckoned we were on for a majority of 100-plus”.

And Fergie told Blair: “Just take it a bit easy. You are out in front.

"Let them come after you, watch them make mistakes and then punish them for it.”